None.
The present invention relates generally to the art of inkjet printing and, more particularly, to a printhead service cassette which may contain cleaning fluid or other type of servicing fluid and printhead wipers and other elements for contacting and thereby servicing the orifices of an inkjet printhead. Inkjet printers may utilize a scanning carriage on which one or a plurality of inkjet printheads, usually containing different colors of ink, are mounted to scan back and forth across media on which printing is to take place. Other inkjet printers, with which the present invention is equally applicable, do not use a scanning printhead carriage but instead mount a plurality of inkjet printheads in stationary position relative to the moving media on which printing is to take place.
In inkjet printers which use scanning printhead carriages, a printhead service station containing a plurality of printhead servicing cassettes, usually equal in number to the number of inkjet printheads mounted on the carriage, may be provided, usually at one end of the path of travel of the scanning printhead carriage. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that multiple service stations can also be employed such as one at each end of the path of travel of a scanning printhead carriage or the service station may be located somewhere between the ends of the path of travel of the printhead carriage if desired. Inkjet printers with which the present invention may be used may be relatively small format such as desktop size or large format printers capable of printing on media of as much as 60xe2x80x3 in width or even wider. The media on which printing is to take place may be paper, vellum, textile or any other suitable media supplied in either roll form or individual sheet form.
Particularly in large format printers used for printing on textiles, the inkjet printheads must be frequently wiped and otherwise serviced. This is due, in part, to the fact that airborne textile fibers contaminate the working environment requiring more frequent wiping of the printheads and because inks for printing on textiles are more aggressive than traditional inkjet acid-based inks. Also, due to absorptivity of textile fabric, ink may have to be repeatedly applied to individual locations on the media by the same or different inkjet printheads in order to obtain the necessary final desired color and color density and contrast. Accordingly, inkjet printheads containing a relatively large capacity of ink (about 1500 cc for example, versus 750 cc for a conventional inkjet printhead) have been developed. The use of large capacity inkjet printheads and the frequent printhead wiping to remove airborne textile fibers requires more frequent changing of printhead cleaner cassettes which, in turn, is very inconvenient for the user since, particularly in industrial/commercial printing applications such as textile printing, downtime of the printer during changing of the printhead cleaner cassettes is critical and user interventions should be minimized.
It is accordingly the primary objective of the present invention to provide a printhead servicing cassette in which the printhead orifice wiper may easily be replaced when worn or at the end of its intended service life without requiring the user to replace the entire printhead servicing cassette.
The present invention therefore provides an inkjet printhead servicing cassette comprising a housing and at least one printhead wiper blade extending in operative position from said housing, a rotary blade support mounted in said housing, said support having plural ones of said wiper blades mounted thereon at angularly spaced positions and mechanism for rotating said blade support to move a wiper blade from operative position to inoperative position as another wiper blade is moved from inoperative position to operative position.
The present invention further provides an inkjet printer having at least one inkjet printhead, at least one printhead servicing cassette for engagement with said printhead, said servicing cassette comprising a housing and at least one printhead wiper blade extending in operative position outside of said housing for contacting said printhead, a rotary blade support mounted in said housing, said support having plural ones of said blades mounted thereon at angularly spaced positions and mechanism for rotating said blade support to move one blade from operative position to inoperative position as another blade is moved from inoperative position to operative position.